February 15, 2012

Shields and Shelter, 2010

Shields and Shelter is a design for the grounds of the public bath – Flevoparkbad – in Amsterdam. For the Rietveld graduation exhibition 2010, I realized a 1:1 detail of my design on the lawn behind the Rietveld Academy.

In Shields and Shelter I applied step by step the guidelines that I have developed to achieve safe and comfortable zones using my own fear experiences. These guidelines involve architectural concepts like shielding and view, shadow and light, flexibility versus rigidity. The perfect safe zone to me is a flexible space which gives one freedom and privacy but which is not enclosed. As basis for the design drawings I used an aerial photo from Google Earth of Flevoparkbad. From each towel, I constructed lines of sight from 120° angle views. Through shading these 120° triangles a map emerges with different degrees of surveillance. The darker the area, the more views. At the darkest areas the view must be blocked. Therefore I developed shields, which can be slided along rails that follow the lines of sight. This allows the bathers to adjust their exposure to others according to their own wishes.

January 13, 2012

Flexible Space

Flexibility is freedom, insecurity, the unexpected. However, as a consequence of the security obsession in all layers of society, anything unexpected is avoided, which leads to a sterile, transparent and neutral environment, resulting in a rigid city. But rigidity in turn leads to fear. People do not want to be checked, pressed in fixed structures, they want to choose and design. What is their freedom? Can they use the city space as they want? The perfect space I think is a flexible space that provides privacy and freedom, but which is not enclosed.

Posted by kristin at 01:39 PM

April 15, 2008

Warped Space, 2007

The organic movements of a person distort the architectural structure.